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Taphozous sp
Hanging upside down with thin folded legs drawn up by the side.
The ruins of the Sun temple at Mehsana, Gujarat built in 1026 AD. Just one of the domes had these roosting bats though.
The place was stinking of bat guano but NOT ONE tourist looked up...perhaps this was good or else the bats may have been disturbed.
Thanks AfriBats...with Neil and you both voting Taphozous, I'll go with it...will check species level later...at least let it have a name.
Definitely a tomb bat (Taphozous sp.) but there are a bunch of species occuring in Gujarat and I'm not familiar with the bats of India:
www.inaturalist.org/places/gujarat?utf8=...
Neil, I checked but according to the range map, these two do not occur in Gujarat....long and uphill research for me...I was so hoping the two names you gave would be a short cut :) Will keep trying. Thanks, again.
Thanks Neil...never knew we had TEMPLE bats!!!! Live and learn, I guess. I will look them up in a day or two. Thanks, again.
Hipposideros speoris and Taphozous melanopogon are both common temple bats species (according to the Department of Zoology, Bat Research Laboratory, Sarah Tucker College, Tirunelveli). Might be a good place to start for an ID.
What an amazing spotting, Sukanya. Truly amazing. I particularly love the second photo. How many people would ever see bats in a 1000 year old temple? The dome is quite spectacular. A fave!!! Hope you can get a species ID on these guys.
Thanks Hema,
I am just back from Gujarat...a birder's paradise plus the Only Wild ass in India..how are you?.
Spotted on Dec 11, 2014
Submitted on Dec 29, 2014
